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Are Arsenal fans glad that Elneny turned down Leicester move?

Mohamed Elneny Still Has a Big Part to Play at the Emirates This Season

Arsenal accepted a £10 million bid for midfielder Mohamed Elneny during the summer but the Egyptian opted to stay in North London and produced arguably his best performance in a Gunners shirt against Chelsea in the Community Shield, which Arsenal went on to win on penalties despite Chelsea being the heavily backed favourites heading into the contest. Given that performance, he could play a significant role this season alongside Granit Xhaka in the centre of the park this season.

Both Leicester and Galatasaray have expressed interest in signing the Egyptian international and the Gunners appeared to be willing to enter negotiations, even accepting a bid from the Foxes in July. However, Elneny vowed to fight for his place at the Emirates and impressed fans over the course of a full 90 minutes at Wembley in the Community Shield.

Elneny was signed for £7million in January 2016 from Swiss outfit Basel but, despite some encouraging performances, he failed to nail down a regular starting position in Arsene Wenger’s side. He didn’t feature towards the end of last season and there was speculation surrounding his future throughout the pre-season period. He made 29 appearances in all competitions last season, netting twice in the process, but his final Premier League appearance came in the 3-0 defeat to Crystal Palace.

Many Gunners fans were surprised to see his name on the team sheet ahead of the curtain raiser against Chelsea but he fully justified his inclusion with a sterling performance in the heart of the midfield. Interviewed after the match, Elneny stated that he is 100% focused on Arsenal and believes this success can provide them with a springboard ahead of the new campaign.

Another player who impressed on Sunday was new recruit Sead Kolasinac, who struck the equaliser and put in an eye-catching performance down the left-hand side. He slotted into Arsene Wenger’s preferred 3-5-2 formation perfectly, with the 23-year-old looking composed throughout the contest. His turn of pace could also be a handy asset throughout the season. This new founded defensive solidity could also help the aging Petr Čech submit a strong bid for the 17/18 Golden Glove winner, the Czech is currently fifth favourite for the prize.

Aaron Ramsey is expected to miss the first couple of weeks of the new Premier League season through injury, which could open the door for Mohamed Elneny to cement his place in the side. His partnership with Swiss midfielder Granit Xhaka could blossom throughout the campaign with the pair complementing one another’s game perfectly. The Swiss international will be looking for a solid second season after receiving various levels of criticism during his debut campaign.

The Community Shield success will give confidence to a side who have been written off by many pundits this season. However, their defence is still considered vulnerable, particularly against better sides and “Both Teams to Score” was one of the advised bets in the Arsenal vs Chelsea tips August 6th, with each side finding the net inside 90 minutes. Despite currently being widely expected to finish in the Champions League qualification places, Arsenal will still be seen as outsiders to lift the Premier League crown.

Alexandre Lacazette’s arrival has lifted some of the gloom around the Emirates after they missed out on fourth spot last season. The powerful striker has been prolific in Ligue 1 over the past couple of seasons and appears to be more of a natural finisher than fellow Frenchman Olivier Giroud. Lacazette will most likely be tasked with leading the line for the majority of the season, and has been backed by punters to lift the Golden Boot at the end of the campaign. Midfield is a key area for the Gunners next season, especially if Wenger wishes to persevere with his favoured 3-5-2 formation and Mohamed Elneny could be pivotal in helping guide his side back into the Champions League spots.

Glory days…the race to the middle has officially begun…BTW when did you write this ridiculous article, obviously some time ago based on the facts provided…maybe you were just waiting for the perfect moment to enlighten us about how this well-meaning but fairly average player refused to move on so that we have another body on the bench and no impetus to upgrade in a position of great need…praise the lord…this is why this club is stuck in the proverbial “no man’s land” of the soccer landscape, not willing to pay what it takes to compete for real, but unwilling to “rebuild” for fear of losing out on the millions to be made from being just good enough

personally I would prefer a new script, one that saw us rid the bench of overpaid players, effectively eliminate our antiquated wage structure, spend the overwhelming bulk of our financial resources on fielding a world-class staring 11 then fill our bench with youthful and relatively inexpensive players from within our youth system and those found by our scouts both at home and abroad…this is exactly how clubs like Real, Barcelona and Bayern have emerged as soccer powerhouses: it’s important to keep in mind our weekly wage bill is not too dissimilar from the aforementioned clubs, which seems ludicrous if you really think about it…by using this method we would eventually entice top players to North London because we are looking to compete for the top prizes and likewise encourage young talented players to see us a club that both recognizes that players are getting noticed at a younger and younger age and provides real opportunities for playing time on the big stage…I just don’t know if our current manager or ownership group can facilitate just such a plan, which means much of the same for the foreseeable future

How about Sergi Roberto?
He seems to have become available… and reports is that Man U and Chelsea are going in for him.
He is an athletic CM. He is both defensively and offensively aware when he plays. He can compete with Ramsey for the spot on the right alongside Xhaka and with Bellerin for the RWB position.

Unlike Alexis, Ox is a bit easier to replace. Rather than gamble on him this season and potentially lose £35M (if he doesn’t sign the extension), I’d be tempted to cash in on him and use that money to activate Sergi Roberto’s release clause.

I like Elneny. He is not a world class midfielder and will not provide moments of magic like Santi (except the goal vs barca) but Elneny keeps it simple and works really hard. He will always guarantee a 6/7 out of 10 performance. For £7m you can’t really ask for more, he is a good squad player. Every successful squad needs a few players like this. I also feel that to really see Elneny thrive, he needs 5-10 games of back to back first team football. Since he’s joined he’s never had a consistent run in the team, I feel he deserves one.

Good squad player and definitely useful to have. However the clubs interested in his signature are Leicester & Galatasaray, which is probably the level at which he could regularly achieve first choice. If we want to be at that level, then he’s fine.

If we want to start competing with teams like Barca/Real/ManU/ManC/Chelsea/Bayern/PSG once again then we need to fill Cazorla’s shoes with better overall quality & reliability than Elneny (And Ramsey, Wilshere, Coquelin…)

Look at PSG now, they look like they’re gonna create a whole new category. One team, them up there on their own like Messi used to be, and then comes Barca Real, then the three English teams with Bayern in one of the groups. The only team that might rival PSG in the future, is maybe Man city if they’re allotted. The only saving grace might be how there are plenty of excellent players to go round, and a great manager and scouting team can always break some hearts.

Guys, go back and watch Elneny’s videos when he played for Basel!
He certainly was a very different player back then. Plenty of accurate long balls and creative passes. He was bought as replacement for Xhaka when Xhaka left Basel.

One of his major strength is playing the “give and go” -making himself available for the return pass. He can be very good at linking up with the attack. He showed a glimpse of that at Wembley (won us a crucial set piece that led to Sead’s goal and Pedro’s red).

Now, he’s become too timid with all the constant back passes/playing it safe and all. I wonder why.

If he steps up his performance alteast 50% this season, we certainly will have solved 50% of our problems.

Not just him, many Arsenal players play safe, except Sanchez. I think it’s because they got penalized for losing the ball when trying to create risky passes.

I remember many fans complained about Sanchez when he lost the ball due to his forward passes. Barcelona players do that a lot, because they want to break their opponent’s defense. But once they lose the ball, they have to retrieve it under ten seconds.

Playing safe is not always good and Arsenal should improve their system if they want to compete with other top European teams.

Nice article.
Did not know that we accepted a bid, thought we were rumoured to be shopping him around. Elneny must have really impressed in training, if one moment we want his empty spot but next he is starting ahead of others. Wenger might have even done it to try put a rocket under him. Like how he expects big seasons from Alexis Oxlade and Ozil. Risky business, Ozil and Oxlade might not appreciate that too much. In the end I expect Oxlade to get what Walcott is on or else slightly more, and he does deserve par at the least compared to Walcott. It’s Wenger’s own fault for setting the pay-bar high on players who’s ability and teams worth can be caught up on sharply enough, once you got the heart with a decent football knowledge about you. I expect Wenger to get rid of Walcott before Reiss Malen Mavididi and others start getting noticed, because they’ll all want Walcotts wage or more.

This is his first proper preseason as Arsenal player.Give him a break, guys on here only respect players with high transfer fees.Manu won the prem league with less value players. What we need at this club is consistent and committed players.We the fans also need to play our own part.

I agree with Jay. Some Arsenal Fans know nothing but slating players. I wish that Arsenal players never read this site as they will be disgusted with how some of their fans abuse and i
Insult them. There is a big difference between being negative and being constructive.

Let us face it. Arsenal is not a world class team at least not yet, a good solid team yes. we have one or two world class players; Ozel is one of the two, the Chilean is the second. We have many good players; Elneny is one of them; he performs very well, plays very hard, he does what the coach tells him. why do we blame him for everything? he does not make that many mistakes. but we always have to find a scapegoat.

People seem to forget how Elneny was when he first joined last season and because people by nature have short memories they only remember the last thing they saw. When Elneny joined he was full of confidence and that’s how you assess a player when he’s at his very best otherwise a guy like Ozil will be considered trash taking by his last performances yet everyone goes back to his memory books to assess Ozil and the same should happen with Elneny who won back to back player of the month when he first joined and scored that screamer against Barcelona yet his all round contribution that made the headlines then came Xhaka on board and that is exactly when Elneny’s form started slightly dipping because simply his confidence was shaken by finding himself a regular bench warmer instead of a regular like he was before Xhaka joining and I don’t think Wenger addressed this psychological issue with Elneny or even noticed it probably because he had enough issues of his own. Those who limit Elneny’s ability to average at best simply don’t have eye for talents and that’s why their are pros in this game and there are watchers. Actually Elneny made a career mistake rejecting Leicester who would’ve made him a regular and this is when he will evolve as a player rather than playing scared like he is now too worried where he’ll be next week on the other hand Shakespeare of Leicester knows too well that Elneny can grow to a serious beast in this position that’s why he went for him and believe will try again in Winter

sorry but i dont see the need to keep elneny. sure he is a fine squad player but he doesnt mesh well with xhaka or cazorla so not really needed. if you watch xhaka vs leicester closely you will realise that some of xhaka misplaced passes were in an open space that would have normally been taken by ramsey making a forward run before the pass.

it is a lot like arteta ramsey combo where arteta/xhaka is the brain and vision and ramsey gives options for xhaka to release the ball quickly to avoid being pressurized by opponents.

yes ramsey would lose some of this balls and be directly responsible for goals like vs watford but it helps xhaka who regularly looks up to spot runs.